Palestinians say they are skeptical about an Israeli move to set free a number of Palestinian prisoners ahead of renewed negotiations between the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Israel, Press TV reports.

Israel says on Tuesday that it will release 26 out of 104 prisoners who have been decided to be released in four tranches over a period of nine months.

On July 28, Tel Aviv ratified the release of long-held Palestinian prisoners, after the 22-member Israeli cabinet approved the proposal by 13 votes to seven with two abstentions as a move toward the resumption of talks.

Nevertheless, Palestinians in the occupied West Bank are highly skeptical about the measure.

“I am skeptical of the current situations because a small number of Palestinians are being released but at the same time, over five to six thousand Palestinians are still in Israeli prisons,” a Palestinian said. A Palestinian rights organization has also said this move is not in good faith by Israel. Addameer Prisoners Support and Human Rights Association stated that Tel Aviv is using the release of prisoners as a bargaining chip against the Palestinian Authority.

On Thursday, US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said talks between the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli regime would resume on August 14 in al-Quds (Jerusalem).

The representatives of Israel and the PA met last month in Washington. The meeting was the first direct negotiations in three years.

Last month, Hamas rejected the US’ proposal for the resumption of talks, saying it “considers the Palestinian Authority’s return to negotiations with the occupation to be at odds with the national consensus.”

The last Palestinian-Israeli talks were halted in September 2010 after Tel Aviv refused to freeze its settlement activities in the West Bank.

Palestinians are seeking to create an independent state on the territories of the West Bank, East al-Quds, and the Gaza Strip, and are demanding that Israel withdraw from the Palestinian territories occupied in the Six-Day War of 1967.

Tel Aviv, however, has refused to return to the 1967 borders and is unwilling to discuss the issue of al-Quds.

The first group of 26 prisoners is being released on Tuesday, with three more “batches” to be freed throughout the predicted nine-month period of negotiations.

Many Palestinians are skeptical about how much attention is being put on the release of a small fraction of the five to six thousand Palestinians still in Israeli prisons. Addameer Prisoners Support and Human Rights Association stated that the Israeli regime is using the prisoners’ release as trading material in the negotiations.

The longest serving prisoner wrote a letter directly to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas saying the prisoners “didn’t want to be used as a bargaining chip.”

One of the prisoners being released is Khaled Asakreh, who was imprisoned at age 18 with a life sentence. He is now 41 and going to be reunited with his brothers and sisters after 23 years.

One of Asakreh’s brothers, Nayef Asakreh told PNN that they are overwhelmed with happiness because they have been dreaming of Khaled’s release for a long time, and it has now become a reality.

The release, however, is bittersweet. Nayef Asakreh said his brother’s happiness cannot be complete because his colleagues and friends remain behind Israeli bars, and he won’t be content until all the prisoners are freed.

The Israeli regime ratified the release of Palestinian prisoners as a part of the resumed negotiations on July 28, with an Israeli cabinet vote of 13 to seven and two abstentions.

Both Hamas and a majority of the Palestine Liberation Organization have criticized the Palestinian Authority’s decision to resume negotiations, saying Abbas made a unilateral decision without the peoples’ support.

It's expected that the releasing of the 26 Palestinian prisoners the Israeli authorities agreed to release as part of resuming negotiations with the Palestinians will begin Tuesday midnight. Prisoners are due to arrive to Ramallah and Gaza Wednesday at dawn.

Those prisoners were transferred to Ayalon Israeli jail in al-Ramleh, where medical tests will be run on them, and they will be interviewed by the Israel Prison Service (IPS) and the International Red Cross.

The Israeli High Court of Justice issued today its decision on the petition filed by Israeli organization Almagor on behalf of the Israeli society and a number of families who are against the government's decision to release 26 Palestinian security prisoners.

These parties also provided a new petition to the court demanding to postpone the release and claimed that the list of prisoners to be released include six prisoners have committed commando operations after the signing of the Oslo Accords.

The mother of a Palestinian prisoner at a weekly sit-in in front of the Red Cross headquarters in Gaza City, on 12 August 2013

As part of the US effort to restore utterly futile “peace talks” between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, Israel agreed to release 104 Palestinian prisoners in phases, with the first 26 to be freed on 13 August.

In many cases, they are the same prisoners Israel has agreed to release in previous agreements, before reneging on those commitments.

Playing up Israeli anguish Israeli media and politicians have been doing their utmost to milk this decision for propaganda purposes, highlighting how unspeakably evil the Palestinians are and what a high and terrible price this is for Israelis.

Israeli newspapers highlighted the crimes committed by the prisoners, most of whom have served 20 years or more in prison for deadly attacks against Israelis. The list of prisoners, which was released after midnight, included one of the killers of Isaac Rotenberg, a Holocaust survivor who was 67 at the time of his death in 1994, and the man who killed an 84-year-old Israeli, Avraham Kinstler, with blows from an ax.

Kershner ends her article with this heartbreaking pen portrait of Israeli relatives protesting outside the High Court which was hearing petitions against the releases:

One of them was Gila Molcho, the sister of Ian Feinberg, an Israeli lawyer who was bludgeoned to death by a Palestinian man wielding an ax in Gaza in 1993 while he was working on a project there. Ms. Molcho held a framed portrait of her brother, who was 30.

“Don’t let them come home as heroes,” she said of the prisoners to be released. “We will be left holding the pictures.” Weeping, she added, “They are terrorists, not soldiers.”

Palestinians have no such opportunity Of course, it would be inhuman not to empathize with the anguish of any individual whose loved one has died violently.

But what’s most striking – and unremarked – about all this is that Israelis are, by and large, the only ones who have the opportunity to bewail the release of prisoners held for decades for killing their loved ones as some sort of great sacrifice and injustice.

The examples of crimes where there has been a total absence of accountability and justice are simply too numerous to list, but they include the 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacres of thousands of Palestinians during the Israeli occupation of Lebanon, and more recently more than 1,400 Palestinians killed in Gaza in 2008-2009 during Operation Cast Lead.

Twenty-one family members were killed and 19 injured in the shelling of just that house. Others had been killed, injured and left to die in nearby homes. Nine of the dead in Wa’el Samouni’s house were children, the youngest a baby of six months. The dead children included Wa’el Samouni’s 14-year-old daughter, Rizqa, and 12-year-old son, Faris.

In that case, as in countless others, Israel investigated itself and – surprise! – found no wrongdoing.

Insignificant sentences It would be wrong to say that Israeli soldiers never receive sentences for crimes against Palestinians. One year ago, for instance, an Israeli soldier was handed a sentence of 45 days in prison in a plea bargain on a lesser charge that meant he avoided trial for killing Raya Abu Hajaj, 64, and her daughter Majda, 37.

The mother and daughter were shot dead in the Gaza Strip in January 2009 as they were among civilians waving a white flag and trying to flee the Israeli onslaught.

Has B’Tselem not noticed that Israeli military police operate as if their job is to prevent, not promote, justice for Palestinian victims?

The impunity goes down to the individual level. Who can forget the “Israeli army officer who fired the entire magazine of his automatic rifle into” Iman al-Hams, a 13-year-old Palestinian girl in Gaza, “and then said he would have done the same even if she had been three years old.”

In these cases, the names of the accused are not even made public, another form of impunity for Israeli perpetrators.

Recently, I wrote about the case of Michael Gershkowitz an Israeli soldier, who received a risible two-month sentence for an horrific, unprovoked beating of a Palestinian worker that was caught on video.

Colonial “justice” It bears mentioning that under the 1993 Oslo accords, the Palestinian Authority and security forces have no powers to arrest or bring to justice Israelis who commit crimes against Palestinians, a limitation that institutionalizes Israeli colonial “justice.” The Palestinian Authority can only arrest Palestinians.

Indeed, Israel’s main concern in negotiating the Oslo accords was creating a subservient regime that would effectively protect Israeli colonizers from any form of resistance by subjugated Palestinians, something the Palestinian Authority has done for years under the rubric of “fighting terrorism.”

Sentences reduced for Israelis convicted of killing Arabs It would be remiss not to mention that sometimes Israeli civilians do go to prison for long periods for killing Palestinians.

There is the example of Ami Popper, who was serving multiple life sentences for murdering 7 Palestinian laborers in 1990.

During his time in prison, Popper became religious, got married and had three kids. In 2007, while on prison leave, Popper was involved in a car accident which left his wife and one of his sons dead. He had been driving without a license.

He has since remarried and got divorced. Sunday’s wedding is his third marriage.

Popper’s sentence was reduced from seven life terms to 40 years in a series of pardons and commutations in 1999 by Israel’s then president Ezer Weizman.

That wasn’t all. As Agence France Presse reported on 3 February 1999:

Weizman’s order reduced by four years the 15-year sentence of Yoram Skolnik, who was jailed in 1993 for shooting a bound Palestinian man who had been captured after stabbing a Jewish settler in the West Bank.

Skolnik was originally jailed for life but Weizman already commuted the sentence to 15 years. Nehemia Michbaum, who killed a Palestinian man by throwing a hand grenade into a market in the Old City of Arab east Jerusalem in 1992, had his term reduced from 12 years to 10 years.

Also benefitting from Wednesday’s decision were two brothers, Yehodav and Eitan Kahalani, who were sentenced to 12 years in prison for the attempted murder of a Palestinian and had their terms cut to eight years.

The impunity is so pervasive and systematic – and endemic to what is a colonial reality in Palestine – that The New York Times doesn’t notice it. But when Israelis feel aggrieved, Kershner makes sure the world hears their weeping.

As families of veteran Palestinian prisoners impatiently await the release of the first group of 104 Palestinians detained before the 1994 Oslo Accord, families of other prisoners are disappointed.

Releasing the 104 veteran prisoners in groups is a big mistake in the first place, says Fadwa Barghouthi, wife of jailed Fatah leader Marwan Barghouthi.

All 104 prisoners must be released at once before resuming negotiations with the Israelis, she told Ma’an on Monday.

On the other hand, Barghouthi was disappointed because the Palestinian leadership did not raise with the Israelis the release of her husband who has been serving five life sentences since 2002.

“Does the Palestinian leadership want prisoners like Marwan and Ahmad Saadat (secretary-general of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine) and others to wait 30 more years in custody before being freed?” Fadwa wondered.

But she welcomed the release of any pre-Oslo prisoners. “Before he was detained, Marwan had struggled to release long-serving prisoners, and he always slammed Oslo over (its) failure to free them,” she added.

Fadwa urged the Palestinian leadership to adopt a well-planned strategy to secure the release of all Palestinian prisoners. Experienced persons should be in charge of the prisoners’ case, she said highlighting that improvisation in this case is unacceptable.

An Israeli source said that the release of the 26 Palestinian prisoners authorized to be freed by the cabinet last month will take place late Tuesday night. Jerusalem told Ynet that the release could be delayed in the case of unexpected developments or surprises, and hence there has yet to be official confirmation of the date and time.

The prisoner release is intended as a gesture of good will toward the Palestinians. Israel prefers the release take place at night in a bid to minimize Palestinian celebrations and prevent mass participation on their part.

Fuad Al-Khoffash, head of the Ahrar Center for Detainees Studies and Human Rights, stated that not a single detainee from the Jerusalem and historic Palestine is included in the list of detained to be released by Israel, and that not all old detainees are included.

His statements came after Israel announced the names of 26 Palestinian detainees to be released as part of an American mediated agreement to ensure the resumption of direct peace talks between Tel Aviv and Ramallah.

“This list is very disappointing to the detainees, their families and the Palestinian people”, he said, “Israel was supposed to release old detainees who spent many years in prison”.

He also stated that the Palestinians are happy for the release of any detainee, and added that the release should have been based on real standards, instead of illusions, especially since Israel chose the names of the detainees without any coordination with the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.

“The worst part of this list is that detainees from Jerusalem from Jerusalem and historic Palestine have been excluded”, Al-Khoffash said, “The list was concentrated on detainees from Gaza”.

He said that there are 57 old detainees from the West Bank and 23 from Gaza, and that Israel was supposed to release 15 detainees from Gaza and 11 from the West Bank.

Al-Khoffash also said that two detainees, members of Hamas, are slated to be release in a month.

“Detainee Samir Hussein Mortaji from Gaza, was kidnapped on October 29 1993, and was sentenced to twenty ears, he served his term and is supposed to be released next month anyways”, he stated, “Detainee Jamal Ambdul-Wahab Natsha was kidnapped on December 12 1992 and was sentenced to 21 years, he served his term, and was scheduled to be released in three months”.

Also on the list are four detainees who were supposed to be released anyways in less than a year, including three, from Gaza, who have been sentenced to 25 years, and one from the West Bank who was sentenced to 21 years and is supposed to be released anyway in six months.

“Nihad Yousef Jondiyya, from Gaza, was kidnapped on July 14 1989, Mohammad Mahmoud Hamdiyya, from Gaza, was taken prisoner on the same day, Mohammad Jaber Nabshat, from Gaza, was kidnapped on September 20 1990”, he said, “Also resident Taher Mahmoud Zyoud, from Jenin, was taken prisoner on February 6 1993, he was sentenced to 21 years, and was supposed to be released in six months”.

He also stated that detainee Ismael Abdul-Hafeeth Mansour, was kidnapped on October 26 1993; he was sentenced to 22 years and was scheduled to be released in two years.

In addition, detainee Atef Izzat Sha’ath, from Gaza, was kidnapped on March 13 1993, and spent 21 years of his 25-year term. Detainee Yousef Sa’id Abdul-‘Aal, from Gaza, was kidnapped on February 22 1994, and spent 20 years of his 22-year term.

Al- Khoffash further said detainee Borhan Sbeih will also be released despite the fact that he is not one of the long serving detainees as he was kidnapped on February 18 2001. He used to work as an officer of the Palestinian Preventative Security Forces.

He added that Israel will be releasing five detainees from Nablus, who were sentenced to life-terms, one from Bethlehem, three from Jenin, one from Ramallah and one from Hebron, and that the rest (15 detainees) are from Gaza, and 17 of the detainees who will be released are serving life terms.

“The reason behind this analysis is that the Palestinians need to clearly understand the nature of this deal, especially since the Palestinian negotiators had no input in it as the names have been chosen by Israel and were kept secret”, Al-Khoffash stated, “We need to understand that the mistakes that have been made in the past, are repeated now in this deal”.

He also said that all old detainees should have been released, including those who still have many years in their terms, and all of the detainees sentenced to life terms without any exceptions.

The release is part of an agreement reached between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, under direct supervision and mediation from U.S. Secretary of State, John Kerry, in an attempt to revive peace talks.

However, Israel was left to choose the names it wants and the criterion it wants to follow.

Palestinian officials expressed disappointment following the publication of the names of 26 prisoners set to be released later in the week as part of resuming peace talks. The officials said they were expecting the list to contain the names of well known prisoners whose release would have raised public support for the negotiations.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Israel will release 104 Palestinian prisoners who were jailed before the Oslo Accords were signed, including Arab-Israelis and residents of east Jerusalem. Abbas' statement was given during a meeting in his office with Prisoners Affairs Minister Issa Karaka.

According to him, the release will be made in four stages, and no prisoner will be deported from his homeland. Abbas added that prisoners' release will improve the chances to reach a peace deal with Israel.

In a move labeled by Israeli government officials as a 'goodwill' gesture, but questioned by the families of the over 4,000 Palestinians imprisoned by Israel as a public relations stunt, just 12 prisoners will be released on Tuesday, with an additional 14 to be exiled to the Gaza Strip.

In the past, such prisoner releases have involved hundreds of imprisoned Palestinians, but this time, the Israeli government has approved just 12 prisoners for full release. An additional 14 Palestinian prisoners will be exiled to the Gaza Strip, unable to return to their families and homes in the West Bank.

Israeli forces engage in daily raids of Palestinian towns, villages and refugee camps, abducting sometimes dozens of people each day. So Palestinian prisoner advocacy groups say that the release of a dozen prisoners is rather disingenuous on the Israeli government's part, since the Israeli military usually abducts that many in a single day.

Despite the low number of prisoners to be released, Israeli victims of Palestinian attacks held a protest to challenge the release of any Palestinian prisoners. They also filed an appeal with the Israeli government committee that approved the release.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas had previously stated that the Israeli government had approved the release of 107 Palestinians who have been imprisoned for more than twenty years.

Although most of the Palestinians on the list were imprisoned for killing Israelis, prisoner rights advocates in Palestine point out that Palestinians are often convicted based on circumstantial evidence and without proper legal representation. Many Palestinian prisoners have also been forced to 'confess' through the use of torture techniques. The prison advocacy organization Addameer has documented the extensive and routine use of torture in the interrogations of Palestinian prisoners.

According to the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahranoth, the prisoners to be released or exiled on Tuesday are the following:

1. Kor Mattawa Hamad Faiz, jailed since '85, for the murder of Menahem Dadon and attempted murder of Salomon Abukasis, sentenced to life imprisonment.2.Salah Ibrahim Ahmad Mughdad, jailed since '93, for the murder of Israel Tenenbaum, sentenced to life imprisonment.3.Na’anish Naif Abdel Jafar Samir, jailed since '89, for the murder of Binyamin Meisner, sentenced to life imprisonment.4.Arshid A. Hamid Yusef Yusef, jailed since '93, for the murder of Nadal Rabu Ja’ab, Adnan Ajad Dib, Mufid Cana’an, Tawafiq Jaradat and Ibrahim Sa’id Ziwad, sentenced to life imprisonment.5.Al Haj Othman Amar Mustafa, jailed since '89, for the murder Steven Frederick Rosenfeld, sentenced to life imprisonment.6. Maslah Abdallah Salama Salma, jailed since '93, for the murder of Reuven David, sentenced to life imprisonment.7.Abu Moussa Salam Ali Atiya, jailed since '94, for the murder Isaac Rotenberg, sentenced to life imprisonment.8.Maqlad Mahmoud Zayd Salah, jailed since '93, for the murder of Yeshayahu Deutsch, sentenced to life imprisonment.9. Sawalha Bad Almajed Mahmad Mahmad, jailed since '93 for the murder of Baruch Heisler, and attempted murder of Betty Malka, Shai Cohen, Avishag Cohen, sentenced to life imprisonment.10.Shaath Azath Shaaban Attaf, jailed since '93, for being the accessory to the murder of Simcha Levy, sentenced for 25 years imprisonment.11.Abdel Aal Sa’id Ouda Yusef, jailed since '94, for throwing explosives, accessory to the murder of Ian Feinberg and Sami Ramadan, sentenced for 22 years imprisonment.12.Barbakh Faiz Rajab Madhat, jailed since '94, for the murder of Moshe Beker, sentenced for life-term imprisonment.13.Raai Ibrahim Salam Ali, jailed since '94, for the murder of Moris Eisenstatt, sentenced for life-term imprisonment.14.Nashbat Jabar Yusef Mahmad, jailed since '90, for being an accessory to the murder of Amnon Pomerantz, sentenced for 25 years imprisonment.15.Mortja Hasin Ganim Samir, jailed since '93, for abduction, interrogation through torture, and murder of Samir Alsilawi, Khaled Malka, Nasser Aqila, Ali al Zaabot, sentenced for 20 years imprisonment.16.Sawalha Faz Ahmad Husni, jailed since '90, for the murder of Heisler Baruch, sentenced for life-term imprisonment.17. Ramahi Salah Abdallah Faraj, jailed since '92, for the murder of Avraham Kinstler, sentenced for life-term imprisonment.18. Abu Satta Ahmad Sa’id Aladdin, jailed since 1994, for the murder of David Dadi and Hayim Weizman, sentenced for life-term imprisonment.19.Abu Sita Talab Mahmad Ayman, jailed since 1994, for the murder of David Dadi and Hayim Weizman, sentenced for life-term imprisonment.20. Mansour Omar Abdel Hafiz Asmat, jailed since 1993, for being an accessory to the murder of Hayim Mizrahi, sentenced for 22 years imprisonment.21.Asqara Mahmad Ahmad Khaled, jailed in '91, for the murder of Annie Ley, sentenced for life-term imprisonment.22.Janadiya Yusef Radwan Nahad, jailed since '89, for the murder of Zalman Shlein, sentenced for 25 years imprisonment.23.Hamadiah Mahmoud Awad Muhammad, jailed since '89, for the murder of Zalman Shlein, sentenced for 25 years imprisonment.24.Abdel Nabi A. Wahab Jamal Jamil, jailed since '92, for the murder of Shmuel Gersh, sentenced for 21 years imprisonment.25.Ziwad Muhammad Taher Taher, jailed since '93, for the murder of Avraham Cohen, sentenced for 21 years imprisonment.26.Sabih Abed Hamed Borhan, jailed since '01, for the murder of Jamil Muhammad Naim Sabih, Aisha Abdullah Haradin, sentenced for life-term imprisonment."10 of the (Palestinian) prisoners would have ended their jail time within three years." admits an Israeli paper

Ministerial committee to determine Sunday which prisoners will be released two days later. Meanwhile, US envoy Martin Indyk will land in Israel for preliminary talks with both sides

The ministerial committee that was formed some two weeks ago to compose the list of prisoners who are to face release as part of an Israeli gesture as part of the resumption of negotiations, is to convene for the first time on Sunday, when the committee will finalize a list of prisoners to be released on Tuesday. The identity of the prisoners expected to be released remains unknown.

US envoy Martin Indyk is scheduled to land in Israel on Sunday. During his visit, Indyk will hold talks with both sides ahead of formal negotiations. The criteria by which the ministers are to determine which of the prisoners can be released were set by the Shin Bet, which prioritized the names of the prisoners according to the amount of threat they pose to Israeli security.

The Shin Bet lists will be presented to the ministerial committee on Sunday, and the names of the prisoners who are to be released will be published once the committee finalizes the list.

The State is required by law to publish the names in the Israel Prison Service website 48 hours prior to the release of the prisoners.

President Shimon Peres will most likely not be signing pardons, seeing as most of the security prisoners who will be released Tuesday will be Palestinians, in which case the release needs the approval of the IDF .

If all goes according to plan, negotiation teams will reconvene on Wednesday.

Ahead of Indyk's visit to the region, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sent a letter to US Secretary of State John Kerry Saturday night, in which he accused Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of incitement against Israel.

PMO sources said that the letter mentioned quotes in which Abbas speaks against Israeli presence in the future Palestinian state, and additional quotes from the official Palestinian television broadcasts. "Incitement and peace cannot go hand in hand," Netanyahu wrote in the letter.

In another letter to Kerry, the chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said Thursday that Israel's intention to build 1,000 new homes in settlements was an indication of "Israel's bad faith and lack of seriousness" in the talks.

The Israeli Government has officially announced a timeframe for the release of 104 Palestinian detainees, imprisoned since before the first Oslo peace accord was signed in 1993, and said that the detainees will be released in four stages, starting next week, and ending in eight months of direct talks.

The Israeli Radio has reported that the first group of detainees will be released next week, then four months later, the second group will be released “depending on the progress of direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (P.A.) in the West Bank.”

The Radio added that the third and fourth stages would be implemented after the direct talks have continued for six and eight months, and that the release is solely dependent on the “progress of talks with the Palestinians”.

Direct talks with Tel Aviv started recently following several years of stalemate due to ongoing Israeli violations topped by Israel’s illegal settlement construction and expansion activities in occupied Palestine, its ongoing invasions and assaults.

U.S. Secretary of State, John Kerry, managed to get the talks started “without preconditions”, and without an Israel commitment to completely stop its illegal settlement activities.

Various Palestinian factions and groups, and the general public attitude in Palestine, rejected the move made by the P.A., and considered it a setback to the steadfastness of the Palestinian people.

Originally, Israel was supposed to release the 104 political prisoners, those who spent 20 or more years in Israeli prisons, as a goodwill gesture from Tel Aviv to boost the prospects of direct talks, but Israel then decided not to release the detainees all at once.

On its part, the Hamas movement said that the release of a few dozen of detainees under Israeli preconditions is an Israeli act meant to delude the public opinion, and the international community.

Hamas added that, despite the joy of freedom, and the happiness it brings to every detainee and the Palestinian people; the Palestinians will not be deluded, and will never abandon their legitimate rights of real freedom, liberation and independence.

Gaza premier Ismail Haneyya has welcomed the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails on condition that the step would not be linked to concessions. Haneyya, addressing the Eid congregation on Thursday, expressed surprise at the return of PA to negotiations with the Israeli occupation authority (IOA) and warned it against offering concessions in those talks.

He said that the negotiations process allowed the IOA to go ahead in its Judaization and settlement activity in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Haneyya, also deputy political bureau chairman of Hamas, called on Egypt to re-open the Rafah border crossing before individuals and goods.

He affirmed that his movement does not interfere in the internal affairs of Arab countries, adding that recent revelations (of secret Fatah documents) confirmed such trend and exposed those trying to smear the movement’s image.

The premier underlined that the unlimited American military support for Israel would not succeed in ending its isolation in the region.

Cabinet congratulated, during its meeting in Ramallah Tuesday, chaired by Dr. Rami Hamdallah, the Prime Minister of the caretaker government, the Palestinian people and the Arab and Islamic nations on Eid Al-Fitr, and wished to have a blessed one and for the freedom and independence of the State of Palestine with East Jerusalem as its capital, and stressed that the specialized governmental committees are functioning responsibly when it comes to controlling prices and protecting citizens from exploitation during the festive period, in addition to the distribution of the financial assistance to the needy citizens.

In another context, Cabinet condemned the continuing violations of the army and settlers against Palestinian civilians and their properties, in addition to the latest decision of the Israeli government which supports more than 90 settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and the attacks and beating against Palestinian children at a military checkpoint in the south of Hebron and Bethlehem, as well as the smashing of more than 15 vehicles by settlers in the south of Nablus and the attacks on farmers and shepherds which caused the death of many of their cattle in the south of Nablus.

Cabinet warned of the Minister of the Israeli Economy's call to kill Palestinian prisoners immediately after their arrest which was seen as a clear threat, it also called on the international community and human rights organizations to hold responsible to protect the Palestinian prisoners and compel Israel to the international law and to stop its violations against them and save the lives of the prisoners on hunger strike, especially Jordanian prisoners who have been suffering from critical health conditions.

In a separate context, Cabinet welcomed the initiative of the Palestinian leadership in Syria, which requires the departure of all Syrian militants in the Palestinian refugee camps and to emphasize the neutrality of the refugee camps from the Syrian conflict, it also called on the Syrian parties to abide by the terms of the Palestinian initiative about the ongoing conflict and stop the killings of our people.

The State asked the High Court to reject the appeal filed by the bereaved families and victims organization Almagor, against the release of Palestinian terrorists, as part of the renewal of negotiations. "This is a purely political matter which is completely within the executive authority and the court refrains from getting involved in it, again and again," wrote the State in response to the High Court.

Israel says the Palestinians will go free in stages, depending on the progress of the newly-resumed talks

Saeb Erakat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, says that Israel will free the first batch of a promised 104 long-serving Palestinian and Palestinian-Israeli prisoners on August 13.

"The release of veteran prisoners will be in four batches as Israel refused to release them all at once," he said in a statement on Sunday.

Israel says that the men will go free in stages depending on progress in newly-resumed talks with the Palestinians.

"It agreed on releasing 26 of the old prisoners on August 13," Erakat said.

According to local media reports, The Palestinian Prisoner Society published a list of prisoners expected to be freed.

The prisoner release was approved by the Israeli cabinet last week to coincide with the talks, revived after a three-year hiatus.

A first meeting took place in Washington earlier in the week,and the Israeli negotiator, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, said on Saturday that another session would be held shortly in the Middle East.

"These discussions that began in Washington will resume during the second week of August and will take place in the region," Livni told the private Channel 10 television station.

She said the talks would alternate between Israel and the Palestinian territories, and that the first of 104 prisoners imprisoned by Israel prior to the 1993 Oslo peace accords would be freed before the next round.

The Hebrew media revealed a deal between Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu and Naftali Bennett, leader of the Jewish Home party, to expand settlement activities in exchange for the latter's support for the release of Palestinian prisoners as a goodwill gesture towards the peace process. The deal took place after Bennett had threatened to withdraw his far-right Zionist party from the government coalition if the government agrees to hold negotiations around the 1967 borders and release Palestinian prisoners.

The deal includes a pledge from Netanyahu to build 5,000 settlement units in the West Bank.

The Hebrew media also reported that the Labor party's Knesset member Merav Michaeli had asked the legal advisor to the government to investigate the deal.

She expressed her strong opposition to the deal and said that such deals must not be struck in exchange for settlement construction.

PLO Executive Committee member, Dr. Hanan Ashrawi, strongly denounced Israeli minister of Industry, Trade and Labor, Neftali Bennett's recent statements regarding Palestinian prisoners – 'If you catch terrorists, you have to simply kill them.' Bennett also declared that he has 'killed lots of Arabs' in his life and that 'there's no problem with that.'

Dr. Ashrawi stressed, "It is astounding that Neftali Bennett, an Israel government official and Knesset member, has a complete disregard for due process, human rights, and the value of life."

She added, "What makes it even more chilling and disturbing is the fact that Bennett believes that it is acceptable to imply that the killing of Palestinians is an ordinary event that Israelis should indulge in with equanimity and undeterred by any moral or legal consideration."

"Such horrific statements betray a culture of hate and racism, even at the highest executive level, which is the outcome of decades of Israeli military occupation with impunity and the deliberate dehumanization of its Palestinian victims," concluded Dr. Ashrawi.

I can't wait for the liberal Zionists to wrap their arms around this one! Economy and trade minister Naftali Bennett, a key coalition partner in Netanyahu's government, drops the veil. David Sheen mentioned this in his post on racism yesterday. Here is the Jerusalem Post's report on the rightwing leader's comments during a Cabinet meeting about releasing Palestinian prisoners:

According to Yediot Aharonot, Bennett said, “If you catch terrorists, you simply have to kill them.”

National Security Adviser Yaakov Amidror reportedly responded by saying that “this is not legal.”

Bennett then allegedly retorted, “I have killed lots of Arabs in my life – and there is no problem with that.”

Amnon Be’eri-Sulitzeanu, co-executive director of the Abraham Fund Initiatives, told The Jerusalem Post that it is unacceptable that Bennett generalizes that all Arabs are terrorists and that “in no country would they allow a minister to speak about its citizens using this kind of language.”

In any other country, such a minister would be dismissed, he said.

Furthermore, Be’eri- Sulitzeanu finds it problematic that nobody is complaining about this.

“He cannot talk like this about citizens of the state,” he said. “We are not at war with all Arabs, but with some of them.”

Naftali Bennett talks to students at a pre-military religious school, north-east of Ashkelon on January 20, 2013

The Palestinian Authority Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday called on Israel to investigate remarks made by Israel's Economy and Trade Minister, which made claims about killing Palestinians.

Naftali Bennett, leader of the far-right Jewish Home partner, commented to Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot following news of a Palestinian prisoner release that: "If you catch terrorists, you have to simply kill them."

"I've killed lots of Arabs in my life – and there's no problem with that," he went on to say.

The PA Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that based on these confessions, "the Israeli government has to open a transparent and legal investigation into these remarks and allow Palestinian rights advocates to follow the investigation."

The ministry urged Palestinian, Israeli and international rights organizations to take Bennet's remarks seriously and hold him accountable.

On Tuesday, the General Delegation of the PLO to the United States strongly condemned the "racist" remarks and called for international action.

"It is extremely alarming that a public Israeli official at the ministerial level calls for murder and utters explicitly racist remarks without being held accountable."

When Benjamin Netanyahu was re-elected as Israeli Prime Minister in January 2013, many political pundits predicted that we could now expect to see a kinder, gentler Knesset. Other analysts, myself included, feared that the new crop of legislators would be even crueler and more racist than their predecessors. An overview of the past six months would sadly seem to confirm the prognostications of the pessimists.

To believe that with the ultra-Orthodox parties cut out of the coalition, level-headed leadership would ensue requires one to consciously ignore the endless stream of supremacist statements by top politicians from the largest parties in the government: Likud, Yesh Atid and HaBayit HaYehudi. Public comments made by parliamentarians in the last 24 hours alone perfectly encapsulate the frightening lows that this country's leaders have sunk to.

Yesterday, on July 29, 2013, Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot reported that the leader of HaBayit HaYehudi, Israel's Minister of Industry Trade and Labor and of Religious Affairs Naftali Bennett said, "I've killed many Arabs in my life and there's no problem with that." Asked to clarify his statement, Bennett's spokesperson told 972 Magazine that he was speaking not of all Arabs, but of Arab militants who are captured -- in other words, prisoners of war.

Today, July 30, 2013, the ultra-Orthodox website BeHadrei Hadarim reported that David Lau, who began a ten-year term as the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel less than a week ago, castigated Jewish youth for watching sports broadcasts, since the players are just "niggers". News site Maariv NRGuploaded a YouTube video that contained an audio file of Lau making the racist statements.

The first English-language Israeli news site to run the story, Ynet, completely buried the lead of the story -- the rabbi's revolting racism - and focused instead on his aversion to sports. Worse still, they intentionally mistranslated the word he used, "kushim", which means niggers, as "black men", which in Hebrew is actually "shchorim", or "anashim shchorim".

Bennett saw fit to respond to Lau's statement over Facebook, not condemning him for saying them, but rather condemning "the media" for "hounding" Lau. Bennett termed the comments "jovial", "marginal" and "insignificant" and announced his support for Lau.

The anti-Arab and anti-African racism of Israel's top political and religious leaders is not reserved for the realm of words alone. The government continues apace with its dual human removal projects: the Prawer-Begin plan to dispossess Bedouin Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel of their lands, so that they can be appropriated for Jewish settlements; and the Yishai-Saar plan to expel all African asylum-seekers from the country.

The objectives of the Netanyahu government are no secret: to reduce the number of non-Jewish people living in the country and to reduce the amount of land that the remaining non-Jewish people live on. Confident of the ability to carry out these plans, Israel's political and religious leaders make no attempt to hide the hate that lies behind them.

Secretary-General of the Palestinian National Initiative, Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi, stated that Israel is trying to use the issue of releasing some Palestinian political prisoners to politically blackmail the Palestinians to resume direct negotiations.

Barghouthi said that the Israeli decision to release 104 detainees as a “gesture of good will” is not an act of kindness but an overdue responsibility that was supposed to be carried out 20 years ago.

“This release is 20 years late, years lost behind bars”, Barghouthi stated, “They were supposed to be release in 1993 when the first Oslo Agreement was signed between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization”.

He also said that the Israeli decision is vague and loaded with traps, as Israel conditions the gradual release of those detainees with the progress of peace talks.

“Israeli Minister of Justice, Tzipi Livni, said that the gradual release depends on progress of direct talks”, Barghouthi said, “This means Israel is blackmailing the Palestinians in order to oblige them to provide concessions”.

The Palestinian official also said that the legitimate Palestinian struggle for liberation and independence is the struggle of more than 4800 detainees.

“Those detainees sacrificed their freedom for the freedom of their people, not for partial agreements”, he added, “What is happening now is very serious, direct talks are about to resume while Israel continues its illegal settlement activities, and ongoing with its violations against the Palestinians and their lands”.

He also said that Israel is performing its old tactics of using direct talks to cover-up its illegal settlement construction and expansion activities, and without any intention to stop its invasions, violations and assaults.

Political bureau member of Hamas Ezzet al-Resheq said that Palestinian prisoners in Israeli occupation jails should not be exploited as bargaining chips. He criticized, in this respect, the PA negotiating team for the way it managed the issue of prisoners.

Resheq was speaking in a statement on his Facebook page commenting on the reported Israeli decision to free 104 prisoners as a step to go along with the resumption of negotiations with the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah.

He said that the liberation of prisoners as in the Wafa Al-Ahrar deal that humbled the Israeli arrogance was far better than the freedom of prisoners as means to resume negotiations that only serve the Israeli occupation’s schemes.

The Hamas leader recalled that the Wafa Al-Ahrar deal succeeded in liberating more than one thousand Palestinian prisoners in return for the release of captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

Dr. Yousef Rizqa, political adviser to Gaza prime minister, warned of offering new Palestinian concessions after the PA decision to resume talks with the Israeli authorities. He renewed the Gaza government rejection to the PA's unilateral decision to offer serious concessions to the Israelis amid Palestinian people and factions’ refusal to this step.

There is no political justification for resumption of talks in light of an Israeli extremist rightwing government, an American biased policy, in addition to the unstable current Arab situation due to the systematic schemes against the Arab spring revolutions, he added.

He described the Israeli decision to release 104 Palestinian prisoners who were detained before Oslo accords as a bribery that would be canceled once the negotiations fail.

He pointed out that Netanyahu will supervise the prisoners' deal that will not include prisoners affiliated to Hamas or Jihad movements or the prisoners from 1948-occupied territories.

He stressed that resistance is the only way to release the Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails, citing Wafa al-Ahrar deal in which 1000 Palestinian prisoners, chosen by Hamas movement, were released in exchange for the Israeli Corporal Gilat Shalit.

Some racist groups in the city of Jerusalem distributed enticing brochures targeting veteran prisoners on Sunday amid considering the release of some prisoners (pre-Oslo prisoners).

The Jerusalemites detainees and prisoners families committee said that the brochure which was titled “we killed….they released us” included the pictures of some veteran prisoners talking about themselves being killers and will now be released. Meanwhile, pictures for Egyptians with beards were also included but had names of Palestinian prisoners and at the top of the brochure was a green banner saying “No God but Allah”; the bottom was in red referring to blood and said “we won’t go crazy” in Hebrew and “we won’t release terrorists” and on the other side of the brochure were pictures of handicapped people who were killed by resisters. The brochure was signed by Terror Victims Association.

Among the pictures that were in the brochure was the picture of the dean of prisoners Karim Younes, Maher Younes, Salem Ali Abu Mousa, Yassin Abu Khdeir and others.

The Jerusalem Post Israeli newspaper reported Israel’s Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon said Sunday that Israel will pay a cost in terms of deterrence following the decision to free 104 Palestinian prisoners as part of resuming peace talks.

While talking to new IOF recruits at the military induction center, Ya’alon stated: "In the future the strategic considerations behind the decision will be revealed."

Ya’alon addressed the chance of a successful peace process saying, "A third intifada is not in the cards and neither were the threats of a political tsunami. I advise the prime minister and cabinet ministers not to take such threats into consideration. The Palestinians were the ones to walk out on negotiations in the past four years. We will not sacrifice anything connected to security during negotiations."

He also made it clear that there are still many questions regarding the talks. "We will ask the other side whether they recognize Israel as the Jewish people's nation state and whether a territorial compromise will end all claims."

The Palestinian Authority on Monday slammed remarks by an Israeli minister who said Palestinian prisoners were "terrorists."

"Terrorists are those who occupy the lands of another people and displace them by force and settle in their place. Palestinian prisoners are strugglers for their freedom and not terrorists," the PA Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

The ministry was responding to remarks by Israel's Economy Minister Naftali Bennett, who has protested the planned release of 104 long-serving Palestinian prisoners to coincide with the resumption of peace talks.

Bennet, leader of the Jewish Home party, has called the proposed prisoner release a "disgrace" and said "terrorists should be eliminated, not freed."

The PA ministry responded that some Israeli officials were "terrorists."

"The definition of terrorism completely applies to many Israeli politicians who defame Palestinian prisoners especially those jailed before the Oslo Accords."

At a cabinet meeting on Sunday, Bennett said Palestinian "terrorists" should be killed instead of jailed, the Hebrew-language newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported.

When told such a policy would be illegal, Bennett responded that he had "killed many Arabs and I never had a problem," the report said.

Chief Palestinian Negotiator Dr. Saeb Erekat commented on the announcement made Sunday regarding the release of 104 Palestinian political prisoners from Israeli jails imprisoned before the Oslo Interim Agreement. Dr. Erekat said "We will continue working for the release of all our political prisoners."

"This Israeli cabinet decision is an overdue step towards the implementation of the Sharm Sheikh agreement of 1999, whereby Israel committed to reelase all the Pre-Oslo prisoners. We welcome this decision 14 years later."

The decision includes all Pre-Oslo political prisoners that remain in Israeli prisons, including Palestinians from Israel.

Dr. Erekat continued: "We call upon Israel to seize the opportunity made by US Secretary John Kerry towards the resumption of negotiations in order to put an end to decades of occupation and exile, and to start a new stage of justice, freedom and peace for Israel, Palestine and the rest of the region."